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ANNEXATION OF HAWAII, 



SPEECH 



OP 



HON. EDWIN C. BURLEIGH, 



OF MAINE, 



IN TH^ 



HOUSE OF RKPRKSENTATIVK3, 



Wednesday, June 15, 1808. 



VSrASHINGXO?^. 

1898. 



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72936 






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SPEECH 



HON. EDWIN 0. BUELEIGII 



On tlic joint resolution (H. Res. 259) to provide for annexing' tlie Hawaiian 
Islands to the United States. 

Mr. BURLEIGH said: 

Mr. Speaker: I am heartily in favor of tlie annexation of 

Hawaii. I have long been convinced of the advisability of this 

move. It is one, in my judgment, in which this Government has 

much to gain and nothing to lose. It is not to be wondered at 

that foreign nations look with amazement at the opposition in 

this country to the securing of a vantage point of such immense 

^ strategic importance in protecting the vast interests of our Pa- 

j cific coast. 

There is not the slightest doubt as to what the course of any one 
of them would be under similar circumstances, and it is not surpris- 
ing that they should view our delay and hesitation in securing 
this rich prize which is ready and anxious to come to us without 
money and without price as a conclusive evidence of American 
shortsightedness. Europeans are slow to comprehend the condi- 
tions which may operate, in a country like ours, to blind people 
to the obvious demands of self-interest and lead them to ignore 
the very laws of national life. 

"Westward the course of empire takes its way,"" and events are 
already demonstrating the prophetic wisdom of Secretary Seward 
when he declared that " the Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands, 
and the vast regions beyond " were destined to become the world's 
"great theater of events." Had the spu'it which to-day opposes 
the annexation of Hawaii jn-evailed with our fathers, we should 
not have more than quadrupled our territory, and instead of the 
3,600,000 square miles that now constitute our magnificent domain 
we should to-day be limi ted to the 800, OCO square mi'cs secured from 



Great Britain in the struggle for independence. Since the birth 
of the Republic we have added 2,800,000 square miles to our terri- 
tory. 

Louisiana, Florida, Texas, the territory secured from Mexico in 
1848 and 1853, and Alaska have in turn extended the area of the 
nation. Out of the great domain thus acquired have come twenty 
states of the Union, and yet no additions have ever been made to 
our territory that were not the occasion of severe criticism, 
and the most of them have called forth bitter denunciation of the 
Administration then in power. The greatest of all our acquisi- 
tions of territory was the purchase of Louisiana in 1803. 

Out of the country thus secured have come, in whole or in part, 
twelve prosperous States of the Union, represented in this Con- 
gress by eighty-four Senators and Representatives. The purchase 
of Louisiana is easily the greatest single achievement of American 
statesmanship, and yet it was the occasion of bitter protest from 
many citizens of the country whose range of vision did not extend 
beyond the narrow limits of their own day and generation. 

Mr. Blaine, in his Twenty Years of Congress, says: 

It seems scarcely credible that the acquisition of Louisiana by Jefferson 
was denounced with a bitterness surpassing the partisan rancor with which 
later generations have been familiar. No abuse was too malignant, no epi- 
thet too coarse, no imprecation too savage, to be employed by the assailants of 
the great philosophic statesman who laid so broad and deep the foundations 
of his country's growth and grandeur. 

There is not a patriotic citizen of the United States to-day who 
would favor the relinquishment of a single foot of the territory 
which has been added to the original area of the Republic, not 
one who would seriously question to-day the wisdom and fore- 
sight of the statesmen who seized the opportunities presented for 
building up our present great country, with its immense extent of 
territory and enormous wealth of resources. 

In the light of events the dire disasters to the nation which have 
been predicted by the various opponents of territorial expansion, 
beginning with those who thought the area originally secured 
from Great Britain ample for all possible needs of the Republic, 
present and future, and coming down to those who opposed the 
purchase of Alaska as fraught with portentous dangers to our 
country, are certainly amusing. They show what poor prophets 
those who have trained in this school of ultraconservatism have 

:?527 



been, and also how contracted was their conception of the coun- 
try's future. 

A number of the same old ghosts have been conjured up to do 
duty in this Hawaiian controversy; but I do not believe that they 
will cause any fright in Congress or out. In the pride of its energy 
and strength, its noble hopes and aspirations, our country will still 
turn its face to the future and head its undeviating course in the 
way of progress. I have not heard, thus far, an argument against 
the securing of Hawaii that would not have applied with greater 
force to the securing of Alaska. 

I do not share in the fears expressed by the opponents of annex- 
ation. My only apprehensions are of evils which might easily 
befall us if through our shortsightedness we allowed our present 
opportunity to pass unimproved and permitted the beautiful 
Haw^aiian Islands, " the key to the Pacific," to pass into the pos- 
session of some foreign power. We can not pursue a dog-in-the- 
manger policy toward them. We must take them or leave them 
for some nation that, with vastly smaller interests at stake, is pos- 
sessed of more enterprise. 

The civilization of these islands is an American civilization. At 
a great cost of money and labor, American missionaries reclaimed 
their natives from barbarism. American capital has developed 
their rich material resources, and more than 90 per cent of their 
trade is with the United States. Far in the Pacific, they consti- 
tute an outpost of American thought and hope and aspiration 
facing on one side the vast and rapidly developing resources of 
our long Pacific coast, and on the other the far east where forces 
are already at work whose results bid fair to be world-wide in 
their interest and whose ultimate scope no man can now foresee. 

The best naval authorities of this country have repeatedly urged 
the great strategic importance of these islands, and the events of 
the present war with Spain have fully demonstrated the sound- 
ness of their views. I firmly believe that a failure on our part to 
secure these islands would be a grave mistake and one which in 
years to come might result in dangers and complications vastly 
greater than any that opponents of annexation have thus far 
ventured to prophesy. 

The people of my own city have long felt a deep interest in this 

question of Hawaiian annexation. Two of its former distin- 
3527 



6 

guished residents, Hon. Lnther Severance and Hon. John L. 
Stevens, served with conspicuous fidelity and ability as United 
States ministers to Hawaii— Mr. Severance under the Administra- 
tions of Presidents Taylor and Fillmore, and Mr. Stevens under 
the Administration of President Harrison. Prior to his selection 
for this position Mr. Severance had served with distinguished suc- 
cess as a member of the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth Con- 
gresses. It was the hope that their salubrious climate might prove 
beneficial to his health, which had become somewhat impaired, 
that led him to accept the appointment to the Hawaiian Islands. 
Of his service at Honolulu, Mr. Blaine, in a memoir written 
after the death of Mr. Severance, in January, 1855, says: 

During Mr. Severance's residence of two years and eleven months as the 
diplomatic representative of the United States Government at the Hawaiian 
Kingdom he attained a reputation perhaps never excelled by any man on 
those islands. His urbanity of manner, his readiness to do good to all who 
stood in need of his services, and the admirable knowledge he exhibited on 
every topic of political interest which came before the people of that remote 
Government, made him an especial personal friend a'^d, so far as interna- 
tional proprieties would permit, the confidential adviser of the King and his 
cabinet. 

The strongest mark of his esteem and confidence was manifested by the 
King's offering Mr. Severance the highest official position within his gift 
(that of secretary of foreign affairs) if he would consent to remain as a resi- 
dent at Honolulu. His rapidly wasting health and his attachment to his old 
tome, in which he desired to die, forbade Mr. Severance entertaining even 
for a moment the honorable proposal. It was during Mr. Severance's com- 
missionership that the subject of the annexation of the Sandwich Islands to 
this Government was first prominently agitated. 

In response to a communication from the State Department at Washing- 
ton, Mr. Severance prepared a paper on the subject which was extraordina- 
rily minute and accurate in regard to the resources and capabilities of the 
islands in a commercial point of view, and at the same time analyzed in the 
profoundest manner the political effect of their annexation. Although he 
retained a copy of this paper, his sense of propriety would not allow him to 
make it public after it had become the property of the State Department of 
this Government. Should the subject ever again be agitated and this paper 
be called for by Congress, it would doubtless be found to convey more of per- 
tinent and valuable information on the subject than anything which has yet 
been published. 

As a result of Mr. Severance's observation, he returned to his 
native country a firm believer in the great importance, from many 
points of view, of the Hawaiian Islands to this country, and with 
the firm conviction that they would some day be annexed by us. It 
may be worth noting here that Mr. Severance, Mr. Blaine, and 
Mr. Stevens were close personal friends. Each was at one time a 

part owner in the State paper at Augusta, the Kennebec Journal, 

35::7 



and each in turn served as its editor. For three years Mr. Blaine 
and Mr. Stevens were associated in the ownership and conduct of 
the paper, and the friendship then formed, based upon mutual 
confidence and esteem, continued unbroken through life. 

The first issue of the paT)er under the editorship of Mr. Blaine 
contained a vigorous editorial from his pen urging the importance 
of annexing Hawaii, and I will add that he was to the day of his 
death a firm believer in the wisdom of this policy. 

Mr. Stevens was appointed minister to Hawaii by President 
Harrison upon the recommendation of Mr. Blaine. In making it 
the Secretary of State declared that he regarded this as one of the 
most important diplomatic positions in the gift of the Govern- 
ment, and that, owing to the obvious trend of events in the Ha- 
waiian Islands, it was important that the place should be filled by 
an able and experienced man. Such a man was John L. Stevens, 
He had already served his country with signal ability and suc- 
cess, first as its minister to Paraguay, and later as its minister to 
Sweden. 

No man was ever better qualified both by nature and attain- 
ments for the delicate and exacting duties of an important diplo- 
matic position. With great tact he combined an unusual degree 
of caution. He had the instincts of a scholar and was the master 
of an English style of rare strength and grace. No man in public 
life understood more clearly than he the proprieties of his official 
position and none was more punctillious in observing them. While 
extremely careful in his expression of opinion, he was neverthe- 
less a man of strong convictions and was never lacking in the 
courage of them. 

He was a man of sound judgment, a fine type of the clear- 
headed, patriotic American. During the latter years of his life it 
was my good fortune to sustain close business and social relations 
with him. We were near neighbors. I corresponded with him 
during his stay at Honolulu and was thrown much in his society 
after his return. I have no dejire at this time to reopen that 
odorous chapter of duplicity and shame which has passed into 
history under the late Charles A. Dana's characterization as "The 
policy of infamy." Fortunately for the good name of our coun- 
try, the overwhelming sentiment of the American people sufficed 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ^ 

019 944 325 2 



to frustrate its evil designs, and none of its authors now have 
any share in the direction of national affairs. 

The assaults of these men upon Minister Stevens— as faithful 
and efficient a public servant as ever represented this country in 
a foreign land— were instituted partly for political purposes and 
partly to cover the chagrin of their own undoing. The records 
of these assaults are of interest now simply as showing the length 
to which reckless mendacity may go in an effort to gain partisan 
ends. 

I should be false to the memory of a true friend and a true man if 
I did not take this opportunity to say, and say emphatically, that 
during the time John L. Stevens served this country as its minister 
to Hawaii he performed the exacting duties of his position with 
conspicuous ability and scrupulous fidelity. He was, as Mr. 
Blaine well said, one of the ablest and most experienced diplomats 
in the service of the country. During his stay at Honolulu he 
performed no act or spoke no word incompati^^le with the strict 
proprieties of his official position. He did his duty promptly, fear- 
lessly, and well. His record was a creditable one, and the Ameri- 
can people will honor him for it. 

I believe, Mr. Speaker, that the annexation of the beautiful 
islands of the Pacific that he loved next to his native land will 
•oon be an accomplished fact. The trend of events is irresistibly 
in that direction. 

I shared in the general humiliation when our flag was pulled 
down under the Cleveland Administration, and I shall rejoice to 
see it raised there again in permanency and in pride. 

Such a move will establish an ocean fortress for the protection 
of the great and growing interests of our Pacific coast and bring 
nothing but benefits to the American people. 



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